Mic'd Up

Also known as “workplace culture,” office culture encompasses the shared values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors that define how employees interact and conduct themselves within an organization.

Thankfully, staff at KOTO is aligned in our shared values of three important things: sugar, caffeine and memes.

We had to cut way back on the first one due to actual health issues stemming from the M&M machine in the hallway downstairs. It was a thing — night sweats, the shakes, bad dreams.

But the latter two are still going strong. In fact, just today, KOTO’s “newest” employee, Mason, walked into the newsroom to an explosion of memes on his desk.

It’s a birthday tradition and since Mason’s 30th birthday is this weekend, we blanketed his work station so he can discover them in real time, before our very eyes, as his Friday unfolds. We hung the same tattered birthday banner that has traveled from one desk to the next for about a decade. And we got him a cupcake, which is generally offered more as an apology for any memes that go too far.

My favorite part of this tradition is hiding them so that you’ll hear a stray chuckle weeks later when someone opens a desk drawer or moves papers around. I am still finding memes in random places from birthdays past. One important note: Memes are the best and most appropriate way to gently (and passive aggressively) roast your coworkers without HR getting involved. For example, the common theme of my memes is “stress.” No idea why.

The memes get culled every once in a while, but we hold onto our favorites and they become time stamps of sorts.

Assuming you’re still reading (don’t blame ya if you’re not), let me step back and explain the origins of this KOTO birthday tradition. Back when memes were just a twinkle in the internet’s eye, there was a KOTO reporter named Caitlin. Duh. As if you could ever forget the notoriously hilarious “Captain.”

She was my co-pilot when I was hired in 2013 as the news director. The two of us worked together for five glorious years until she moved away. Those years hold some of my most favorite memories and we still keep in touch fairly regularly. Caitlin was a great journalist. Yet, when I think about her time at KOTO, three specific remembrances come to mind:

1. Bringing raisins as a snack while on assignment for the first recreational marijuana sales the morning of Jan. 1, 2014. Emphasis on raisins, marijuana y morning. Who brings raisins as a snack at 8 a.m. on the first day of legal weed?!

2. She sang with Eddie Vedder on the Town Park stage after winning an Eddie Vedder soundalike contest at the Cornerhouse. This deserves its own blog someday.

3. She was absolutely fucking legendary at creating what we now know as “memes.” She would painstakingly add text to photos with some archaic design program and we’d plaster them around town as little promos for the news team.

This was long before Canva or the free meme generator, which we now use with lightning-fast efficiency: https://imgflip.com/memegenerator (you’re welcome.)

I don’t remember exactly when Cait started the birthday meme tradition, but it stuck. Quite literally — there are memes plastered all over the place. No one’s work space is off limits, not even Ben’s. We once made about a dozen memes using the same photo of him from a particularly spicy Duck Race.

Really, you should be concerned if you do not get meme’d on your birthday. It’s a badge of honor. Caitlin still texts me a meme on April 10th and it makes me laugh/cry every time.

So! With Mason’s milestone birthday on Saturday, we knew we had to go all out. 38 total. A record.* Turns out he’s a “meme-orable” guy. Happy birthday, Mason! Drop him a line at [email protected].

* We’d like to thank our official KOTO birthday meme sponsor — the Wilkinson Public Library. Free color printing, baby.